


Decepticon Snippets

by TheOnlyTarkles



Category: Transformers (Cartoon Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Adventures, Awkward Comfort, Breakdown is a ball of paranoia, But Ramjet can handle it, Buzzsaw needs attention, Frenzy is a pushy little bugger, He is now TC's bird buddy, He'll get it, Hijinks, Implications of bullying, Implications of horniness, Lovable stupid mechs, M/M, Paranoia, Seekers are brothers for these fics, Skywarp can be a good boy when he wants to be, Soundwave will never have grandkids, TLC, This is not up for debate, Will Add More Later, bird cuddles, crumby work day, he needs a hug, soothing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:40:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26882311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOnlyTarkles/pseuds/TheOnlyTarkles
Summary: This is a work that follows the Decepticons around and shows their interactions. Some of them will have youtuber references. Those will be referenced properly in the notes. I'm mainly writing these to keep my skills up and share my thoughts and ideas. After all, we got the Autobots' perspective in the show. It's the Decepticons' turn.Previously titled, "Random Snippets"
Relationships: Frenzy/Ramjet (Transformers), Rumble/Breakdown (Transformers), Soundwave/Thundercracker (Transformers)
Kudos: 19





	1. Still Not Ready

Soundwave waited patiently for his ~~terror~~ cassetticon twins to respond to his summons. He had been watching them for the past several months and noted that they'd started socializing with the other older Decepticons more. Sure, it was usually with Thundercracker there with them, but they were having fun and getting on fairly well regardless. It was definitely a step in the right direction for what Soundwave wanted for them.

The two young bots traipsed into the room and peered up at their host. "What were we called for?" Rumble inquired. "If it's about the construction rig mess, Blitzwing and Thundercracker should've spoke up sooner that that's what they were doing. I mean, it was just _there_ , how was I supposed to know not to mess with it?"

His brother snorted and burst into giggles. "I can't believe you flew into that open archway and got _stuck_ like an idiot! And _then_ knocked yourself out on that railing!" The giggles erupted into full blown laughter, earning him a nasty glare from Rumble.

"I'll knock _you_ out on some railing in a nano-klick!"

Soundwave cleared his throat, making the two both redirect their attention to him. He took his hands out from behind his back and crouched to give them each a small robotic doll he'd made. He said nothing as he straightened up and watched the brothers give the dolls weird looks before turning their heads to look up at him questioningly. " **Operation: Care for the doll like a child. I will observe,** " he stated.

The twins stared at him, unsure whether to scoff or be dumbfounded he was asking this of them.

Frenzy tried to voice this. "What do you expect us to--" He cut off and cringed when the doll in his hands began emitting a noise that resembled crying. He held it up at arms length and gave it a wary look before glancing to Soundwave, then Rumble.

Rumble only returned the look. "Dude, make it stop."

The red and black cassetticon sighed and bobbed the doll up and down to mimic rocking. "Baby... Baby, it's fine..." he muttered.

The noise appeared to have been a little louder than Soundwave had thought, because soon Thundercracker joined them in the room and stopped to stand beside Soundwave, watching the twins curiously. "What's going on?" He questioned.

Soundwave replied, " **Testing Frenzy and Rumble's maturity.** " It was clear that the twins thought it was a stupid exercise, but Soundwave needed to know. This was important data for an age old query he had been anxious to find the answer to.

The blue Seeker cocked an optic ridge at him but remained quiet as they continued to observe the young bots. Rumble wasn't doing much. It more seemed like all optics were on Frenzy as he struggled to quell the noisy doll in his hands. The longer this continued, the more visibly irritated the cassetticon got.

"It's fine. Baby, it's _fine_. _Relax_. Shush, shush." He was growing louder and more aggravated. To be expected, honestly. Frenzy had a shorter fuse than Rumble. But what made Soundwave's hopes plummet was that he began shaking the doll roughly and shouting at it in a tone that was clearly directed at his host. "Shush! _Shush_ , baby, daddy's gotcha! Daddy's gotcha, there ya go!" At the end of his theatrics, he chucked the doll at the ground and let it bounce once before stomping on it, effectively crushing it into pieces and shutting it up.

Thundercracker and Soundwave grimaced while Rumble burst into hearty laughter.

"Nice going, Frenzy! Here, catch!" The purple cassetticon grinned, tossing his doll to Frenzy before taking off at a run.

Frenzy caught the doll and ripped its head off before dashing after him, yelling and pelting his brother with the pieces. "Oh no you don't!! Get back here!!"

The two older mechs stood in silence for a moment, staring at where the terror twins had left. After a minute, Thundercracker broke it. "I think it went kinda well. I mean, Frenzy lasted a lot longer than I thought he would have."

While that was true, that was _not_ the result Soundwave had been hoping for. He lowered himself to sit on his heels and hug his legs, burying his face in his knees. " **I'm _never_ going to have grandsparklings...**" he sulked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was an idea that came from two different videos. I've been watching Jacksepticeye play through Death Stranding and his 7th episode had him shouting at BB. Jack gives off strong Frenzy vibes, in my opinion, so I can't help but think about Frenzy as I watch him play things.
> 
> And what Rumble was talking about in the beginning was from LordMinion777's playthrough of Totally Reliable Delivery Service with his friends JP, Gar, and Pat. The 12th video. To put it in perspective, JP reminds me of Rumble, Gar would be Blitzwing, Patrick is Scrapper, and Wade is definitely Thundercracker.
> 
> My references and my thoughts. Take that how you will.


	2. Mischief Seeking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ramjet and Frenzy go on a mini-adventure

Frenzy swung his legs back and forth as he lay across Ramjet’s lap, staring upwards while he wracked his mind for _something_ to do. Anything would be fine, he just needed to move. He sighed heavily and heard the conehead shift his head in response to it, but from the angle he was looking, he couldn’t see the movement with Ramjet’s turbine chambers in the way.

“This isn’t fair,” the cassetticon grumbled, folding his arms and pouting. “It was just a little fun. And it’s not like that much oil spilled. Besides, I’m a soldier in this army!” He carried on a little louder. “I’m practically a full grown mech! How come I hafta be stuck in timeout?!”

“You should count yourself lucky,” Ramjet replied. “I’d actually prefer timeout over the punishments Megatron dishes out to the rest of us. I mean look at Starscream as an example here.”

“Eugh,” Frenzy grimaced. “Yeah, I wouldn’t wanna go through half the things he does. Okay, I see whatcha mean, but this still sucks. I don’t wanna sit here doing nothing.”

“But you have to,” Ramjet reminded. “You know what Soundwave’s like when—”

“Uh, _yeah_ , I know what Soundwave’s like,” Frenzy interrupted impatiently. “I _live_ with him. But I don’t _care_ right now, because I’m _bored_ and I wanna _move_!” On the final word, the cassetticon kicked his leg upward and smacked it against Ramjet’s side. When Ramjet didn’t react and offered no solution, the cassetticon’s pout deepened. Guess it was up to him to think of something. It took a few minutes, but eventually he sat up as he figured something out. “Hey Ramjet.”

“Yeah?”

“Soundwave said your job was to just watch me, right?”

The conehead raised an optic ridge at him. “Yeah?” He repeated suspiciously.

Frenzy smirked up at him with nothing less than absolute mischief. “He didn’t say _where_.”

Ramjet had to think about it for a moment. “Yeah, I guess he didn’t,” he conceded.

“So let’s go explore the back of the Nemesis!”

The seeker jolted with mild fear. “Are you nuts?! You want to wander around the haunted part of the Nemesis?!”

The cassetticon fixed the seeker with a scathing expression. “It’s not haunted,” he said, hopping down from Ramjet’s lap.

“Yes it is! Thrust, Skywarp, and Dirge all swear the ghosts of seekers that died from the crash haunt that section of the ship!”

“What do they know?” Frenzy scoffed.

“Thrust and Dirge went down there once, and when they came back, they were so shaken up they haven’t been the same since!” Ramjet fretted.

“Primus, you’re being such a protoform right now, it’s embarrassing!” Frenzy turned to him and pointed firmly. “I’m gonna go explore it and you’re gonna come with me and we’re gonna prove once and for all that there’s nothing to be afraid of over there. Thrust and Dirge are just ‘fraidy bolts and Skywarp is a liar.”

The conehead furrowed his optic ridges in confusion and got to his feet. “Wait, wasn’t it Starscream’s the liar?”

“They’re both liars. And I’m going.” He turned and darted out the door, startling the seeker in the room with him into dashing after him.

Carefully, stealthily, they made their way to the back of the Nemesis grabbing mobile light sources along the way. It was generally avoided because the ship had such a bad breach that they decided it was best just to close off the halls leading to it rather than fix the darn thing. Prevent the spread of the water and use their resources on other things. And thanks to the ridiculous rumors Ramjet’s trinemates and Skywarp spread, now most of the crew believed that it was haunted.

Frenzy wasn’t afraid. And neither should his courted conehead be. Once they reached the door to the seal separating the front of the Nemesis from the broken back, the cassetticon exchanged a glance with Ramjet. The conehead was clearly still nervous and very much wanted to turn back, but he didn’t speak up against the adventure anymore. The younger mech sighed and eased up his disposition.

“Okay, look. Once we’re in the water, you can hold my servo. Square?” He asked.

Ramjet didn’t look much better, but he nodded and followed Frenzy into the seal all the same. The door shut behind them with a hiss, creating an airlock, then water pooled into the room all the way up to the ceiling before the door in front of them opened. Frenzy swam up to level himself with Ramjet as best he could and extended his servo out to him, letting the seeker clutch his massive servo around his little one. Then they both flicked on their mobile lights and Frenzy led the way deeper in.

He felt the seeker’s grip grow tighter around his servo, but kept his attention on their surroundings. This far down, maybe a few fish and sharks were swimming about the open ship here and there, but for the most part it was empty. Granted, the darkness definitely upped the ship’s creep factor tenfold, but fish were nothing to be scared of.

“Did the others ever say what they saw down here?” The cassetticon asked, letting his light slowly scan the halls and rooms they passed through.

“Only that they felt something cold and sticky grab them from behind,” Ramjet murmured quietly.

The young mech squinted back at him. “They didn’t turn around?”

“They were too frightened to see what ghosts touched them.”

“It’s not ghosts,” he reminded firmly. “And I’m gonna prove it to ya.” Frenzy took an intake and raised his voice. “Hey!! Any ghosts around?!”

“Frenzy…!” Ramjet hissed, looking around wildly. He appeared about ready to jump out of his plating. “You’re going to make the spirits angry…!”

But the cassetticon paid no heed and only continued to goad. “Come out and play tag with us or something! Fight me! I bet you won’t, cowards!” After that, he went silent and listened intently for anything, ignoring the clanking of Ramjet’s trembling armor.

There was no reply. No movement save for them and the fish. After some time passed, he turned to face the conehead with a grin. “See? Toldja there wasn’t—” Frenzy suddenly cut off with a scream of surprise as something reached up from the darkness below and latched on to his leg. This set off Ramjet and caused him to shriek and drop his light in turn, then kick out at whatever had latched onto Frenzy’s leg before making a mad swim for the seal with the little mech in tow. A movement came from behind them, but the ride was so rough, Frenzy could barely keep his mobile light still enough that he could look back to figure out what grabbed him.

Ramjet didn’t stop until they reached the seal and promptly drew Frenzy up against his cockpit window once they were safely inside, hugging him tightly as the door sealed them in and the water levels began to drop again. As soon as the seal hissed open to let them back into the front of the ship, Ramjet continued to book it as far and fast as he could from the back of the ship. Much as Frenzy appreciated the fact that Ramjet wanted to keep them both safe, Frenzy was beginning to feel smooshed.

“Ramjet.”

The seeker didn’t appear to hear him over his panicked footsteps.

“Ramjet!” Frenzy barked out, making the conehead skid to a halt.

“Yeah?” He panted.

“I think we’re far enough. You can put me down now.”

“Oh. R-Right.” His courted carefully set him down, then widened his optics with surprise when he caught sight of Frenzy’s leg. “Frenzy! Look!” He pointed.

The cassetticon glanced downward and discovered a tendril with suction cups sticking to him. He blinked and reached down to pull it off and examine it, a grin spreading across his face. He laughed and held it up for Ramjet to see. “What’d I tell ya? That doesn’t look like a ghost hand to me! It’s just another freaky Earth creature!”

Ramjet took it between his fingers and brought it up to his face to look it over. “Huh. Slippery yet sticky,” he remarked. “Earth creatures really are weird. So Dirge and Thrust only found whatever owns this thing, huh?”

“Yeah. See?” Frenzy gave Ramjet’s leg an affectionate smack. “I may not be the smartest bot on this ship, but I know what I’m talking about! Now wasn’t that more fun than just sitting on our afts?”

Ramjet had to think about it for a bit, but eventually smiled down at him. “Definitely more thrilling, I’ll give you that.”

“Course it was! Now let’s go show that off to the others!”

“We’re not gonna tell them about how we screamed, right?” The conehead checked.

Frenzy nodded. “Yeah, no one needs to know. C’mon.” With that, the two ran off in the direction of the main common room to show off their new hunting trophy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the premise behind this one is--I like the idea of Frenzy and Ramjet as a couple and I wanted to showcase it.
> 
> I can see the two dorks getting up to a bunch of hijinks, mainly due to Frenzy. They would have a lot of fun, and Ramjet would be able to handle Frenzy's roughhousing. And due to the fact that Ramjet isn't the brightest Decepticon, this forces Frenzy act as the big brain for both of them.
> 
> Fun times all around. Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think! I enjoy reading your opinions.


	3. Reality Check

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Rumble learns that maybe he shouldn't be as much of a bully.

Rumble was walking through the halls of the Nemesis, searching for trouble. Normally it was he and his brother who brought trouble to the ship, but Frenzy went and ditched him to hang out with the conehead seekers. So here he was, looking for something else to do. There should be _something_. After all, with all the whackjobs in this army, there was always one thing or another happening.

The cassetticon took a turn down a hall and as he walked, the sound of paranoid muttering grew audible. Speaking of whackjobs, that sounded like Breakdown. Rumble smirked at the possibilities that presented themselves in his mind as he sought out the source of the muttering. He found him in a small storage room, pacing at the far wall as he looked it over. It was _covered_ in datapads and human newspapers, all with what seemed like random garbage than made no sense to Rumble from this distance.

The stunticon was sipping away at a mug of oil, muttering in-between sips. Nothing distinguishable, of course. Breakdown was one of the quietest bots on the ship when he wasn’t shrieking like a protoform out of fear. Slowly, careful not to make any sudden noises that could alert the other, Rumble stalked into the room, closer and closer to the pacing ball of paranoia. He grinned mischievously. It wouldn’t take much to get what he wanted out of him. He didn’t have to be threatening or mean or screw up his voice to mimic someone else. He just needed to be **loud**. He stopped once he felt he was close enough, then took an intake.

“HEY BREAKDOWN!!”

Half of the stunticon’s name being called was covered up by a shrill scream of complete and total terror, followed by the noises of the mug shattering and the datapads and paper being disrupted from their perches on the wall, falling to the floor with great clattering and fluttering as Breakdown temporarily lost control of himself and bolted forward, crashing into his wall mess.

It all happened so fast and yet with the way the scene imprinted itself in Rumble’s mind, it felt like it had occurred in slow motion. And the scene was absolutely _hysterical_. The cassetticon _lost_ it, doubling over and laughing loudly as Breakdown continued to struggle to get ahold of his senses and nerves. “Primus, Breakdown, you ‘fraidy bolts~!” Rumble wheezed out between laughing fits.

The paranoid mech finally got enough sense within him to sprint into a corner and curl up into a ball with his back to Rumble. His trembling plating rattled loudly and violently, his knees drawn up to his chestplate, and his hands clutching at the sides of his head.

Eventually Rumble’s laughter calmed down enough that he was able to make out the sounds coming out of Breakdown. Whimpering sobs. The cassetticon’s smile began to fade. “Breaks? C’mon, it was just a bit of fun. I wasn’t _that_ scary.”

“L-Leave ‘lone me…!” Breakdown bawled.

Aw scrap, he freaked him out so badly the stunticon was scrambling his words. Rumble lost his grin completely and tentatively approached the other. “Breaks, you gotta calm down. It wasn’t anything serious.” He paused when the crunch of a datapad sounded underneath his foot and looked down at it. A picture of his brother smirked up at him as he moved the foot that had stepped on it. Rumble frowned. “What’s all this?”

“Just please go away, Frenzy…!”

Rumble looked back up at him. “I’m not Frenzy. I’m Rumble,” he corrected.

“Won’t for fall that— I-I mean fall for it…! Again…! I won’t…!”

Guilt began to set in hard within the cassetticon. Now the fun had all left and the scene from earlier just made him feel horrible. Rumble walked to stand next to Breakdown. “No, I’m serious. Look at me.”

Breakdown shook his head rapidly with his optics squeezed shut, tears streaming out from the seam of plating keeping them shut. It was so pathetic. Darn it, this was supposed to just be a bit of fun. Why did the stunticon have to act like this and make Rumble feel so bad?

The smaller mech grimaced and stood in silence, unsure what to do to make the feeling go away and to snap Breakdown out of it. He could just leave and grab one of the other stunticons to take care of him, but that wouldn’t make Rumble feel any better. He turned to the mess on the floor and made out the broken mug and oil stains all over the floor. The least he could do is go grab Breakdown a new drink. Wordlessly, the little mech left the room and as soon as he shut the door behind him, he bolted through the corridors to get to the mess hall. He wasn’t sure what type of oil Breakdown had, so he settled for grabbing him a cup of premium, then flew back as quick as he dared with the beverage in hand so as to not spill it.

Was Breakdown still where Rumble left him, he wondered? He hoped he wouldn’t have to hunt him down. Once he reached the door, he slowly opened it and peered in. Breakdown was still in that corner that Rumble left him in, too distressed to move elsewhere, it seemed. The cassetticon re-entered the room and walked calmly and in a manner that made it clear to the scared mech that he’d come back. That’s not to say that the stunticon gave him any attention.

“I… gotcha another drink, Breaks,” Rumble said awkwardly, stopping beside him again and holding out the mug.  
  
“Laced with doison, no pout…” he whispered, keeping his optics closed.

Rumble furrowed his optic ridges and really had to think about what was just said before he understood it. “Primus, I’m not trying to kill you.” When Breakdown didn’t acknowledge him again, he released a small sigh and set down the mug on the floor next to him then turned to the mess. Much as he hated cleaning up, if this was left as it was, one the higher ups would be irritated enough that the rest of them would hear about it. Out of the sheer desire to keep that scenario from happening, Rumble began organizing the papers, stacking the datapads, and picking up the mug shards.

All the datapads had pictures of certain Decepticons and Autobots with notes underneath them. The papers appeared to be torn from something larger and all of them were pictures of various humans. Sheesh, Rumble knew Breakdown had screws loose, but this was all too out there.

“You’re… not Frenzy.”

The cassetticon stopped and turned to the stunticon in the corner again. He was still shaking like a leaf, but he had at least opened his optics and turned to look at him. “I told you that,” Rumble pointed out.

“I couldn’t be sure,” Breakdown mumbled.

“Does Frenzy pull that card a lot?”

The bigger mech hugged himself and looked away. “Enough that I don’t want to chance f-falling for it again,” he said miserably.

Rumble set what he had in his hands down off to the side, then rejoined the ball of paranoia. “Is that why you have a pic of him?” He asked, gesturing to the stacks of datapads. “Are those all the bots that pick on ya?” If it was, he would have been surprised. After all, Rumble himself wasn’t among the stack.

Breakdown threw them a glance and shook his head. “Those are the bots that want me _dead_. Motormaster, Dead End, Wildrider, Megatron, Soundwave, Frenzy, Thrust, Skywarp—” He paused the list and grimaced. “Not Astrotrain, though…”

“But he’s in the stack,” Rumble frowned. “You’ve got his picture.”

Breakdown’s voice got even quieter. “He wants to _use_ me… I’ve seen the way he looks at me… It’s different from the way everyone on the list does… He even tried asking if I wanted to have a ‘bonding experience’… I-I didn’t know what to say… I’m lucky Drag Strip was with me and pitched a fit because he wasn’t asked first… Gave me time to run…”

The small mech cringed. “Ugh. Yeah, I do my best to avoid Astrotrain when I can. He’s a real creep sometimes. Look, I can’t speak for Astrotrain, but I know everyone else doesn’t want you dead.”

The bigger mech blurted out, “No, no, no, I have proof! They absolutely want me dead!”

“Soundwave and Frenzy don’t want you dead,” Rumble insisted. “I don’t think Soundwave wants _anyone_ dead. And Frenzy is just a jerk. Skywarp, too.”

“No one believes me!” Breakdown wailed, burying his face in his knees.

Vector Sigma, this bot… The guilt from earlier had entirely faded and was now being replaced with irritation. “Okay, look,” Rumble started, trying to keep his tone tempered, “I’ll help you. Alright?”

This made Breakdown look up at him with confusion. “H… Help me…?”

The cassetticon nodded at him. “I’ll help you figure out who’s really trying to kill you and who’s just a jerk. Then you’ll feel safer. That’s the problem, right? You don’t feel safe?”

“Y-Yes. Yes, there’s so many people out to get me, I just can’t relax.”

“Alright then.” Rumble put his hands on his hips. “Now drink the premium I gotcha, already, and be grateful. I actually scurried to get it ‘cause you made me feel bad.” The wary look Breakdown tossed the mug on the floor next to him made the small bot roll his optics, reach down, and take a swig of the oil himself. He swallowed audibly then held out the mug to the now startled stunticon with insistence.

With that extra bit of assurance, Breakdown slowly took the mug and began sipping away at it.

The cassetticon nodded with satisfaction, then gave Breakdown’s shoulder a semi-rough pat. “Chill out with your oil and come out to join the rest of us when you’re calm enough. Awright?”

“O…Okay,” the bigger mech murmured. “Um… Thank you, Rumble.”

“Sure, Breaks.”

With that, Rumble turned and left the room, shutting the door behind him. First new thing on the to-do list that he just made up: find Frenzy. It was time to finally set some more boundaries when it came to their prank-pulling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is to showcase the ship dynamic of Rumble and Breakdown and introduce a couple headcanons. There will absolutely be more.
> 
> I can see Rumble being a good fit for Breakdown, seeing as he's one of the more tame Decepticons. That said, he is a bully, so he needs a small attitude adjustment first so that he's able to help Breakdown out.


	4. TC's Off Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TC is having a bad day.

Thundercracker blearily awoke to little bird feet stip-stepping around on his turbines and cockpit window. His whole body felt heavy, like the gravitational pull of Earth increased a thousand-fold. Yet he managed to limply raise one of his arms to gently flop on top of the bird walking on him. He left his optics powered down as his systems slowly started up, and let his hand softly wander the cassetticon atop him. A pleased birdy croon resulted from the stroking.

“Hey, Buzzsaw,” the blue seeker rumbled lowly. He didn’t need to look to know it was this particular condor rather than his twin. As he and Soundwave had been spending an increased amount of time with each other, the yellow-striped condor had been growing fond of him and enjoyed perching on him whenever possible.

The bird squawked at him and stepped on his chest a bit more before lightly pecking at his cheek. The plane groaned and flicked on his optics.

“Hi, what?” He grunted at the beak and pair of sharp optics not far from his face.

Buzzsaw sat up and opened his beak. What came out was a recording of Soundwave’s voice. “ **Reminder: meeting scheduled for this morning at 0900 hours.** ”

Oh slag, that’s right. What time was it? Thundercracker looked around for the time. It was 8:57! And his fragging brothers weren’t in the room! The blue jet sat bolt upright, accidentally launching Buzzsaw into the air, but luckily the bird merely squawked with surprise before righting himself and circling overhead. Did his trinemates even _bother_ to try and wake him?! His comm messages said the last message that had been received was from yesterday afternoon. Those slimy little—!

Thundercracker hurriedly clambered off his recharge slab and scurried for the door, but soon came to realize that his stabilizers weren’t quite online yet as he found himself careening into the wall beside it face first. With a groan, he pushed away from the wall and got himself out the door to bolt wobbly down the hall. Buzzsaw zipped past him as he was doing so, making him stagger with surprise, but he managed to keep on his feet and continued to run through the halls to get to the meeting room. He was five minutes late and panting by the time he arrived, but as calmly as he could, he opened the door and tentatively stepped in.

Megatron was in the middle of speaking and Thundercracker was at least grateful that he didn’t appear to notice the door opening seeing as he didn’t stop. Everyone _else_ , though, took notice and looked at him, making him heat up with embarrassment. As quietly as possible, he walked past the Constructicons to sit in the open seat next to Skywarp, Buzzsaw following and landing on his shoulder once he was seated. He tried not to make optic contact with anyone, but found himself throwing a glance at Soundwave. The communications officer was looking at him as well, staring with who-knew-what expression behind that mask of his.

The blue seeker shot him a bashful mental vote of thanks, which earned him a nod from the tape deck before he returned his attention to Megatron. Once the commander finished his point, he directed his focus to the tardy attendant.

“Thundercracker. How kind of you to join us,” Megatron said calmly. “I don’t suppose you’d care to tell us what kept you from attending on _time_ this morning?”

The jet blushed and shrunk into himself a little. “Not particularly, sir…” He mumbled and he could have sworn he caught a couple of the Constructicons smirking at him.

“You will be let off with a warning this time, but see that this doesn’t become a habit.”

Blessed peace, Megatron was in a decent mood today. “Yes sir. Thank you, sir.”

Megatron redirected his attention to the datapad in front of him and the meeting continued. Overall it was just a recap of past schemes and how they were thwarted so that those in the room could discuss counter measures for future schemes to, at the very least, ensure they came out of the scuffles with more energon than they had been getting so far.

Thundercracker tried his best to stay awake but found himself drifting off every so often. Luckily, Buzzsaw would take notice as he started to and would prod him with his beak. Unluckily, Skywarp decided to join in the fun out of sheer boredom. He began poking Thundercracker just because he could. The blue seeker tried ignoring him at first, then began throwing him warning glares. When neither of those worked, he smacked Skywarp’s hand away and hissed quietly, “Stop!”

“Thundercracker! Skywarp!” Megatron barked, making the two freeze and look to him with optics widened like deer caught in headlights. “Do you two have something to contribute to the discussion?”

“Uh… Um… Well,” Skywarp stammered uselessly, shutting up when his leader’s optics narrowed at him.

“N…No, sir,” Thundercracker admitted softly.

Megatron curled his upper lip and snarled, “Then _be_ _ **silent**_. The next time you speak up, it _better_ be to contribute an idea or there will be _consequences_.”

The two shrunk back uncomfortably and nodded meekly. The meeting resumed, and when Starscream threw them a sharp glare, Thundercracker glared back and pointed furiously at Skywarp. The purple seeker merely pouted grumpily and folded his arms.

It took ages, but finally the meeting was adjourned and everyone filed out of the room.

“That was the most _embarrassing_ display,” Starscream complained loudly. “Why can’t you two behave?”

“Hey, it was Skywarp’s fault!” Thundercracker protested, not so much as glancing Buzzsaw’s way as the condor left to return to Soundwave’s chest compartment.

Skywarp scoffed with a defensive tone. “You were falling asleep! I was helping!”

“No, _Buzzsaw_ was helping. _You_ were being a pest. And that brings up another thing! Why didn’t either of you wake me up?!”

“You are a grown mech, Thundercracker,” Starscream sneered. “Surely you can wake yourself up. You’ve done it in the past. Not to mention I had duties to attend to earlier, so I haven’t been in the berthroom since six this morning.”

“I thought you were awake and just lying there, ignoring me,” Skywarp admitted.

Thundercracker sighed heavily and raised a hand to run down his face. “I’m so darn tired…”

“That’s too bad,” Starscream chirped. “You’re to go out with Reflector for surveillance today. And once you get back, we need to go over flight routines with the coneheads.”

Thundercracker internally groaned and his wings drooped. No recharge slab. He’d better make his ration this morning count, then. Upon getting to the mess hall, he grabbed his share and downed it, then spotted the oil taps. He started to debate whether it was a good idea to wash his energon down with a bit, but was interrupted by Reflector who’d come over to discuss potential scouting spots. Without thinking, Thundercracker walked with him over to the oil taps and poured himself a small amount of premium after watching Reflector go for it as well. They drank and discussed a bit more but soon the blue jet felt a small cramping sensation develop in his fuel tank and he stopped mid-sentence to grimace.

“Thundercracker, are you all right?” Reflector checked.

“Uh,” he started, only to cut off again with a groan and bend over to clutch at his stomach area as the cramping suddenly strengthened dramatically. This situation seemed familiar… Vector Sigma, that’s right. He’d done it before. Had his ration of energon with a dose of premium oil only to get pains as his fuel tank struggled to process it. What was the thing he did to fix it?

Reflector seemed to piece together what was happening. “You did it again, didn’t you?” When Thundercracker nodded with a small whimper, one of him wandered away to grab Starscream’s attention and drag him over.

“Starscreaaaam…!” The blue seeker whined.

The air commander fixed him with an exasperated look. “What happened _now_?”

“I forgot slightly concentrated energon and premium oil don’t mix…”

Starscream growled with frustration. “You idiot, you keep _doing_ this to yourself!” He yelled.

“I knooow…”

“How did you _forget_?!”

“I don’t know, I just _did…_!” Thundercracker growled and hunched over a little more as a particularly nasty throb occurred.

His brother sighed and shook his head. “Stupid,” he muttered. “Come along. We can’t have you crippled for the rest of the day.” Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked toward the door, leaving Thundercracker to stagger behind him.

“I’ll meet you at the hanger!” Reflector called after him.

The two traveled down the halls, passing the odd Decepticon here and there, until they reached a small room Starscream claimed for personal scientific study. It was common knowledge among the seekers that it was just a space used to allow Starscream to keep up his chemistry skills so they didn’t get rusty. Once inside, Thundercracker stopped following his trinemate and merely watched as he milled about collecting things. A beaker here, a pinch of this and that. After a few minutes, Starscream returned to him and held out the beaker, which was now full of a chemical mixture.

“Take your medicine and go do your job,” he said gruffly.

The blue jet took it and downed the mixture, cringing from the bitter taste and gritty texture, but drinking the rest regardless. “Thanks, Starscream,” he grunted, handing the beaker back.

“Yes, what would you do without me?” Starscream set the beaker down on a counter and proceeded to physically turn Thundercracker around and push him out the door so he could lock the room again. The seeker addressed decided not to grace that rhetorical question with a snide answer, thereby keeping his air commander in a decent-ish mood. Unfortunately, t’was not to last.

The scouting mission went fairly well. Reflector and Thundercracker managed to find a few potential spots ripe for harvesting before they got distracted with taking pictures of scenery they found interesting. Those were for themselves. Megatron was only going to get the ones showing off the harvest spots. As soon as the seeker got back to the hanger with Reflector he was immediately called over to the group of coneheads plus his trinemates.

“Can’t I turn in the pictures to Megatron first?” Thundercracker called as he strode toward them.

Starscream waved a dismissive hand. “Mighty Megatron can _wait_ for his stupid pictures. This is important to rehearse so we don’t have in-air accidents. The coneheads don’t understand the concept of keeping aware of where they are in relation to the rest of us.”

“It’s never been a problem before,” Dirge stated.

“It is one of the _many_ things Soundwave and Megatron have been _hounding_ me for recently, and I’m sick of it!” Starscream snapped. “We will drill air safety into your thick domes one way or another!”

As the two groups of seekers took off, Thundercracker caught a glimpse of Thrust muttering something quietly to Ramjet, who snickered in response. They were likely doubting that statement as much as the _rest_ of them were. Of course Starscream didn’t believe the coneheads would pay attention nor care, either, but he had to at least try so as to keep Megatron and Soundwave off his back.  
  


Practice went like how Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp usually performed it between the three of them. They went through tricks, dodging techniques, aggressive maneuvers and so forth. The only thing they did differently was that they split into three groups of two rather than flying together as two groups of full trines. It was a bit obnoxious at first, trying to get the coneheads to cooperate, but eventually they began taking it semi-seriously and had some fun with the exercises. All was going fairly well. Ramjet had only smacked Starscream four times and Thrust had only nicked Skywarp twice.

After half an hour of practice, though, Thundercracker began to lose steam. He tried to tough it out and continue on, but the feeling of going through these air tricks and the wind streaming over and under his wings was highly relaxing. He wound up accidentally dozing off. When he woke up again, he was a good distance under the water they had been practicing over and was still sinking. Thundercracker hurriedly transformed into robot mode and flew back up to break the surface. Dirge was also at the surface of the water, looking disgruntled while the others hovered above nearby.

“Thundercracker!” Starscream shouted furiously, placing his hands on his hips. “What the _frag_ was that?!”

“Why did you have to hit me on your way down?” Dirge griped.

Thundercracker began to stammer uselessly. “I… Sorry, sorry, I just… I tried to stay awake, but…”

“You fell _asleep_?!” The air commander exclaimed with exasperation. “What is your malfunction today?!”

The blue jet heated up with embarrassment for the umpteenth time today and turned his gaze down to the water he was treading, locking optics with his reflection and hating the dim red glow that stared back at him. “Sorry…” He repeated quietly.

Starscream released a long suffering sigh and shook his head. “Well! We still have more to cover, but since Thundercracker can’t seem to _keep up_ today, that will have to be the end of training for now. We’ll pick this back up at a later date. Back to base, all of you.”

Dirge shoved some water in Thundercracker’s direction, making the receiver wince as he got a face full, then flew back into the air with the other seekers to return to the Nemesis, leaving Thundercracker to trail miserably behind them. He wasn’t alone for long, as Skywarp slowed his pace to fly beside him.

“That was the funniest slag, TC,” Skywarp snickered. “Seriously? You really passed out?”

“I don’t want to talk about it with you,” Thundercracker snarled.

“Oh, come on! Learn to laugh!”

“Unlike you,” the blue seeker spat, “I don’t enjoy making people mad at me. It’s _embarrassing_ and makes later teamwork more difficult.”

Skywarp waved a hand dismissively. “That’s because _they_ can’t take a joke either. Everyone on this ship needs to loosen up.”

“Fragging _kill_ me…” Thundercracker groaned.

The purple seeker lost his grin a little. “It can’t be _that_ bad of a day.”

“Kill me _now_ , before I have to go face Megatron,” the blue jet repeated.

Skywarp tilted his head with thought and was quiet for a moment. “Tell you what. You don’t have anything else to do after delivering those pics to Megatron, right?”

“Right.”

The trinemate grinned broadly again. “I’ll kill you after that.”

“You mean it?”

“Yeah, of course. I’ll totally kill you.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that,” Thundercracker grunted, landing once they entered the hanger. The coneheads had gone, but for some reason Starscream had waited for them. He eyed the two of them silently as they approached, and without a word they all left the hanger together.

Thundercracker zoned out as they went and just kept walking with his brothers, following them from place to place as the day went on. Eventually his trinemates stopped in the mess hall and had a seat.

Thundercracker sat down with them, then frowned and stood up. He wasn’t supposed to be sitting. He was supposed to be doing something. What was it? He needed to… The blue seeker started to walk out of the room, paused just outside the doorway, then walked back in and stared ahead of him with absolute confusion.

From their seats, Skywarp and Starscream watched him walk to the room’s other doorway and step out, then step back in a moment later and pause again in the middle of the room before starting to walk for the other doorway once more.

“What is _wrong_ with you today?” Starscream called out.

Thundercracker stopped and turned to them with an exhausted expression, clearly struggling. “I didn’t have a solid power down last night…” He responded.

Skywarp perched his head in his hand. “So you’re just walking until you run out of power totally?” He asked curiously.

“No, I… I mean to do stuff,” Thundercracker said, glancing at each doorway, “but I keep forgetting, then I remember as I leave, and then I forget again…”

Starscream shook his head. “What a sad, pitiful existence.”

The blue seeker grumbled with worry and put a finger to his lips. “I know I had to go to Megatron… And it was with something… But I can’t remember what it was…”

“Are your memory circuits really not functioning properly?” Starscream chided. “You had pictures taken with Reflector of energon harvest spots.”

With that jog to his memory, Thundercracker widened his optics with horror. He should have reported to Megatron immediately after that flight practice with the coneheads, but instead he completely spaced out! Swearing loudly, he bolted out of the mess hall and headed straight for Megatron’s main office. Maybe he wouldn’t be too angry. He hoped, at least… Upon reaching his commander’s office, he stopped to knock, not even caring that he was out of breath.

“Enter,” Megatron barked out, and Thundercracker wasted no time in heeding the order. Megatron looked up from what his attention was on previously and narrowed his optics at the reporting seeker. “Thundercracker…”

“B-Back with a report, sir!” The jet puffed, saluting him before reaching into his subspace and pulling out the photos, then holding them out stiffly.

Megatron slowly reached out and roughly snatched the photos. He then spent a silent minute looking them over and making notes on a datapad before eventually setting them down and getting to his feet. “It has not escaped my notice, Thundercracker,” he started, moving around his desk to stand in front of him, “that you have been very _distracted_ today.”

The seeker tensed. “Yes, sir… I swear it’s not on—” The rest of the excuse was cut off with a grunt as his commanding officer suddenly shoved him against the wall with enough force to make him briefly dizzy.

“I do not care for your excuses,” Megatron snarled, pinning Thundercracker to the wall with one arm against his cockpit and planting a fist into his wing with the other. “I want to make one thing perfectly clear… If this behavior continues, you will be _licking_ the Nemesis clean from stem to stern and serve as my personal errand mech for a _month_. Is that understood?”

Thundercracker swallowed nervously, trying his best to ignore the searing pain in his wing. “Ye-Yessir…! It won’t happen again…”

“See that it doesn’t.” With that, Megatron released him and returned to his desk. “You’re dismissed.”

The blue seeker wasted no time in giving him a shaky salute and booking it out of the office. At first he didn’t know where he was running to, then he got it in his head to go straight to his quarters. Somewhere quiet where he could be alone. Or so he thought. Skywarp was sitting on his charging station when he got there, fiddling with some piece of junk that he’d acquired from who-knew-what. But at this point, Thundercracker didn’t care. He ignored Skywarp’s greeting and plopped himself down against the side of his own charging station, then proceeded to hug his knees to his chest and bury his face in them.

“Cracker?” Skywarp checked tentatively.

“End my suffering,” he croaked. “Keep your word and do it…”

The room fell silent for a moment, then there was movement. Rustling and clanking, then approaching footsteps. Of course Thundercracker didn’t expect Skywarp to really hurt him. The purple seeker could be an obnoxious jerk from time to time, but he didn’t have it in him to do that on purpose. But Thundercracker slowly looked up with confusion upon feeling Skywarp’s fingers start placing sticky things on his arms.

“What are you doing?”

Skywarp smiled at him and held up a shiny sheet of paper. “I found a bunch of these. ‘Stickers’. And I just had them made bigger. They’re fun, aren’t they?”

Thundercracker took a moment to look his arms over as Skywarp continued to place stickers on them. They took the shape of some Earth animals, he assumed. He’d seen a few of them around. But these were highly stylized compare to the actual animals. “They are kind of cute,” he admitted quietly.

“This one kinda looks like Ravage, huh? Oh, and this one’s Buzzsaw! Lemme see if there’s another one, then you can have Laserbeak, too.”

Thundercracker smiled a little as he gazed over his new decorations. “Thanks, Skywarp.”

“Sure, man! No problem!” Skywarp chirped. He paused when their door slid open with a hiss and looked over his shoulder.

There in the doorway stood Soundwave, looking down at them.

“Hey, perfect timing, Soundwave!” Skywarp said. “It’s ‘kill TC with kindness’ time.”

“Skywarp, please—” Thundercracker started, feeling himself heat up.

Soundwave approached them and stuck out a hand in offering to Thundercracker. “ **Come with me.** ”

The blue seeker blinked, but took the offered hand and let Soundwave help him to his feet. He highly expected Soundwave to let go of his hand and to walk away, but instead he led him away while continuing to hold hands. He sure wasn’t about to complain, though. He merely focused on how nice the feeling of their clasped hands was, then he directed his attention to Soundwave’s back, taking his features in and reminding himself just how gorgeous the tape deck was from whatever angle he was gazed upon.

Soon they reached Soundwave’s room and upon entering, Soundwave directed Thundercracker to the armchair within. “ **Sit,** ” he prompted, letting go of the seeker’s hand to go and collect something from his storage container.

Thundercracker obeyed and settled himself into the chair, then looked around. Ravage, Buzzsaw, and Laserbeak were all scattered about the room, relaxing after a long day. There was an odd and distinct lack of two particular cassetticons. “Are Rumble and Frenzy out?” He asked.

“ **Affirmative. They will return later.** ” Soundwave strode back over with a large cloth and proceeded to drape it over the seeker’s lap and tuck it in. “ **You appear to have had a stressful day.** ” He commented.

“I really was trying to do my best,” Thundercracker mumbled. “I was trying so hard to stay awake and to get stuff done. All I ended up doing was hacking everyone off and got told off by Megatron…”

The communications officer finished with the cloth and leaned in to place a small kiss on the other’s nose, making the seeker blush. “ **Disregard Megatron. We all have our off days. You did well enough.** ” Soundwave turned his attention to the wing Megatron had pinned with his fist and knelt to get a better look at it. Gently, he brushed his fingers over the dent left behind, and Thundercracker shuddered while suppressing a small moan of pain. Soundwave immediately stopped and turned his head to look at him.

“S-Sorry,” Thundercracker stuttered. “It’s still, uh… tender…”

Soundwave merely nodded and shifted his gaze back to the indentation, then placed his hand over it. Slowly, as soft as he was able, he began rubbing the hurt spot. Thundercracker’s wincing didn’t deter him. He just kept rubbing, eventually shifting his hand so his fingers were massaging the indent and stimulating the nervecircuits within.

Soon enough, the pain eased and left the blue seeker’s wing entirely so he could enjoy the physical attention. He sighed with comfort and relaxed further into the armchair, shutting his optics. This was nice. This was very nice. There was movement that could be heard and a small weight plopped itself down in Thundercracker’s lap. From the familiar stip-steppings of little bird feet, his smile grew as he moved a hand to rest on top of Buzzsaw’s back. He stroked the bird’s wings, making him croon and settle in. In turn, the condor gave Thundercracker’s leg an affectionate nip through the cloth.

The sound and feeling of Soundwave stopping his massage and getting to his feet met Thundercracker’s audio processors and he opened his optics to look up at the communications officer fondly. “Thanks a lot, Soundwave,” he murmured.

He received a nod before the tape deck walked over to his desk and sat down at it. “ **Rest as long as you need.** ”

As long as he had permission, Thundercracker wasn’t going to give up the opportunity. He was comfy and now that he had a bird on his lap, he wasn’t allowed to get up. His body began to feel heavy and keeping his optics open was getting harder. And Soundwave turning on some classical human music finished the job. Thundercracker let his optics drift shut and his systems power down, and he was out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was inspired from a particularly bad day that I had. My brain was just NOT working and so some of the events in here are things that happened while I was fumbling around.
> 
> TC's morning rations. That actually happened to me with soda and a peanut butter-nutella sandwich. The exchange between him and Starscream are things that were actually said between myself and my younger sister.
> 
> Thanks for reading! If you've got comments, please do leave them! I enjoy reading your thoughts.


End file.
